The Quantum Theory of Light (Oxford Science Publications)

Rating:
Summary: Simple introduction...but not sufficient.
Review: For an introduction to quantum optics, the author is to be highly commended for keeping the mathematics and derivations straightforward and easily followed by a senior or 1st year graduate student in experimental physics. Unfortunately, he does not go beyond the math to discuss the physics which the mathematics describe. The problems he includes for students to work out are all derivation of formula with absolutely no application of formula. By the time I got throught the book, I realized that I still had no real intuition of how a laser worked, or any understanding of how to apply the quantized radiation field to any real problems.

So if you're looking for a handbook to give you a simple tour of the mathematics in the quantum theory of light, this is the book for you. If you're looking for a more comprehensive treatment, look elsewhere. The selection of topics is very limited: too little math for a theorist, and too little physics for the experimentalist.

Rating:
Summary: Great Introduction
Review: The rating says that this edition is perfect for babies and preschoolers. My wife and I have been reading a section to our five year-old child every night before bedtime. He didn't really care too much about blackbody radiation, but he appreciated the importance of the Einstein A and B coefficients. By working with that phenomonological theory you can obtain the inversion dependence of the gain coefficient much more easily than by solving the problem of a two level system subject to an oscillatory perturbation.

I highly recommend it! After we finish this we'll probably introduce our child to Coldren's book on semiconductor lasers!

Seriously, leaving aside my mockery of the inaccurate reading level rating, it is a decent book. I'd agree that it can be dry and focused on equations more than physics at times, but it offers a very balanced selection of topics, and clearer explanations than many physics books.

I particularly like the progression from old quantum theory to semiclassical theory to the fully quantized theory. It emphasizes the useful aspects of each theory, in particular the usefulness of the old theory in terms of simplicity and accuracy in many situations. History may not always be the best approach to science, but it works if you emphasize the usefulness of simple models and how they follow from more sophisticated models.

Besides, it's much better than Yariv (but what isn't?).

One major complaint: It deals almost exclusively with atomic systems. Those of us who work with molecules or semiconductors need a second reference book to learn more about transitions into a continuum of states (or at least numerous and closely-spaced states).